Thurman gets UCI baseball back on track

IRVINE – UC Irvine was in dire need of its first Big West victory Friday night, after the Anteaters were swept at UC Riverside last weekend.

Andrew Thurman came to the rescue, with last-out help from Race Parmenter, as they pitched UCI to a three-hit, 4-1 victory over Hawaii at Anteater Ballpark.

"It was a great win for the team," said Thurman (3-3), a right-hander from Orange Lutheran. "I went out there and pitched as well as I could, and I got good defense from my teammates."

Coach Mike Gillespie, who had to lift Thurman with two outs in the ninth after 115 pitches, said "it was a spectacular performance" after UCI (18-8, 1-3 Big West) polished off a tidy, 1-hour, 50-minute victory.

Thurman probably deserved a shutout. He struck out eight, walked none, got 12 groundouts, and took a one-hitter into the ninth.

But, after Hawaii (7-19, 2-2) picked up two one-out hits, and the Anteaters managed to get only one out of a possible four on a pair of ground balls (including an error), Gillespie brought in Parmenter. The senior from Golden West College closed it out for his fifth save, retiring the Rainbows' Marc Flores on a sharp comebacker.

Thurman said it was the best game of the season, topping his 11-strikeout, 5-hitter against Nebraska on March 15.

"I felt like I was more in control this game," Thurman said, agreeing with Gillespie's opinion that Thurman's changeup was difference.

UCI got two runs in the first, with red-hot Chris Rabago starting the rally on a lead-off double. Two bloop hits and a sacrifice fly by Ronnie Schaeffer made it 2-0 against Hawaii starter Connor Little (1-4).

Taylor Sparks hit his third home run for UCI in the fourth, and the Anteaters scored again in that inning on Ryan Cooper's well-executed safety squeeze that scored Scott Gottschling, who had doubled.

Also likely helping UCI bounce back quickly was Tuesday's 3-1 nonconference victory at USC, which took some of the sting out of the lost weekend in Riverside, Gillespie said.

"I think it was a factor," Gillespie said. "I thought it was very important."

Thurman allowed only two baserunners through eight innings, an infield single by Kaeo Aliviado in the first, and on a two-out error in the third.

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